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Pediatrician Brian Berman came to the Beaumont Health System in August 2012 to take over the three-hospital system's pediatric department with a mandate to expand children's health care service delivery in Oakland, Macomb and northern Wayne counties.

After spending more than 30 years at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Berman was attracted to Beaumont because he saw opportunities to lead a growing children's hospital and pediatric service line and teach medicine at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, where he is chairman of pediatrics.

"We want to offer advanced care and deliveries in a humane and family-centered manner," said Berman, who took over for Jeffrey Maisels, M.D., the former pediatric chair who continues to practice at Beaumont.

"We can do that by developing programs and services that address children's special needs," Berman said.

"For the things we do, we compare very favorably in clinical care and sophistication" with Detroit Medical Center's Children's Hospital of Michigan and C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

"We don't have an open heart and transplant program" like DMC and Mott, Berman said. "We work collegially with our partners there."

Beaumont Children's Hospital, which actually is a hospital-within-a-hospital at the Royal Oak campus, was created in 2008 under Maisels when it became a member of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutes.

The hospital consists of several distinct parts. They include the 80,000-square-foot William & Marie Carls Children's Medical Center, the inpatient floor that houses 120 children's and neonatal intensive care unit beds. Another 21 private and NICU beds are located at Beaumont Hospital Troy.

Beaumont Children's also houses the Ghesquiere Family Center for Children's Surgery, a surgical specialty center for children. Anne Fischer, M.D., who is Beaumont's chief of pediatric surgery. Fischer comes to Beaumont from the Children's Medical Center of Dallas and University of Texas Southwestern Department of Surgery where she served on the faculty since 2007

Reaching out to more patients

As the clinical leader of Beaumont Children's Hospital, the two pediatric departments at Beaumont's hospitals in Troy and Grosse Pointe, Berman is looking to expand the number of patients served, especially north of Troy.

Berman is projecting a 10 percent overall growth in pediatric services this year. Last year, Beaumont delivered 9,000 babies, including 6,500 at the Royal Oak campus, admitted 5,500 patients and conducted 11,000 surgeries with 100,000 total patient encounters.

"We are expanding in subspecialty areas because we have a large and growing demand for our services," said Berman, noting there is a national shortage of pediatric subspecialists.

For example, Beaumont currently is recruiting pediatric endocrinologists and gastroenterologists to improve patient access and reduce the wait for appointments, which sometimes is several weeks.

Last December, Beaumont Hospital Troy opened a 2,000-square-foot subspecialty outpatient clinic to accommodate growth from northern Oakland and Macomb counties, Berman said. Beaumont Troy also has an emergency center specifically designed for children.

Last year, DMC acquired 4 acres in Troy off West Big Beaver Road near the I-75 interchange, where it plans to build a $42 million children's outpatient center. Construction is expected to start later this spring on the 70,000-square-foot multispecialty center.

"DMC's outpatient center has the potential for some diversion of patient flow," Berman said. "We are pushing our own care model that is based on our strengths" of having on staff more than 200 private pediatricians and more than 80 pediatric subspecialists in Southeast Michigan.

Berman received his medical degree from the Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and completed his residency in pediatrics at Temple's St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. He also did a two-year fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at the Yale University School of Medicine.

While in Cleveland, Berman also served as professor and vice chairman for faculty affairs in the department of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.